Today’s Lady News: A Sarah Palin Reality Show?

Sources say A&E Networks and Discovery Communications are interested in acquiring Sarah Palin’s “reality show” in which she gives a guided tour of Alaska. The working title is “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” and Palin is allegedly asking for $1 million to $1.5 million per episode. [Reuters]

Two House Representatives this week introduced the Women and Workforce Investment for Nontraditional Jobs Act, which would promote training for low-income women in jobs they don’t traditionally go into.

Last month, Afghanistan’s news and culture minister asked 20 broadcast channels to “revise their programs” in order to keep images of women’s flesh off TV. Currently TV stations employ “pixelators” who go through foreign programming, like Indian films or Turkish soap operas, and make the women’s bodies blurry. [Reuters]

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie proposed cutting all funding — $7.5 million total — for family planning centers that serve low-income women. Family planning agencies do everything from provide gynecological exams to STD and HIV testing. Michele Jaker, executive director of the Family Planning Association of New Jersey, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that studies show every dollar spent on family planning saves the state four dollars in other areas. [Philly.com]

Nebraska’s Govenor Dave Heineman reiterated his position today that he opposes government funding of prenatal care for mothers who are illegal immigrants. [Omaha.com]

A bill requiring women to have an ultrasound before receiving an abortion has stalled in the state’s General Assembly by the Health and Welfare Committee. [WFPL]

A 28-year-old Alabama man was charged with rape after his DNA came up as a match in Combined DNA Index System, a national database run by the FBI. [WHNT]

Police were called to a Boulder, Colorado, residence because of reports that a 52-year-old woman was gardening topless. Girlfriend was only wearing a thong and gardening gloves! Police, however, asked her to put some clothes on because she lives across the street from a school where children were playing. [KWTX]

Paste magazine’s list of “The 50 Best Living Directors” only included four women. Recent “Best Director” Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”) is not even one of them. DOUBLE FAIL. [Women & Hollywood]

It’s only the first official week of spring break, but already six rapes have been reported in Daytona Beach, Florida. All but one involved drugs and/or alcohol and three of the victims where unconscious when they were sexually assaulted. [True/Slant]

Farzaneh Arastu, 42, began her career as an Iranian actress named “Saman” — but now she’s appearing in roles as an Iranian actor. Arastu is one of the first well-known Iranian actors to undergo a sex change operation. [Guardian UK]

A French Auschwitz survivor, politician and feminist, Simone Veil was inducted into the Academie Francaise yesterday in a ceremony attended by President Nicolas Sarkozy. The elite academy, which has only admitted five women before Veil, makes judgments about words to include in the national lexicon, like “computer” or “Internet.” After surviving the concentration camps, Veil went on to urge the legalization of abortion and eventually became president of the European parliament. [Reuters]